


Stories of the Second Self: Fly A Mile with Their Wings

by John_Steiner



Series: Alter Idem [17]
Category: Urban Fantasy - Fandom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-01
Updated: 2020-02-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 22:54:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,014
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22503601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/John_Steiner/pseuds/John_Steiner
Summary: As an FBI profiler and Fae elder, Teresa Sorenson is requested by the U.S. Navy to interview a refugee from Syria who happens to be an angel. With a combination of psychology and magic, Teresa Sorenson must get a first person sense of this angelic woman in order to know if it's safe to grant the refugee asylum into the United States that struggled to recover from social collapse.
Series: Alter Idem [17]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1618813





	Stories of the Second Self: Fly A Mile with Their Wings

Teresa Sorenson drove on into Norfolk Naval Station after she was cleared at the last checkpoint, and proceeded toward the naval brig. Once she found a parking space, she opened the door and attempted to get out. Except her nine point antlers snagged on the roof, yanking her head sideways.

"God!" she hissed, "Always forget that!"

Trying again, she hunkered over and put her head out first, and they stood up. Then she crouched down and reached in for her briefcase without leaning into her car, where her antlers might catch something again.

Properly equipped, she went inside and got clearance with the front desk, before proceeding on. Following the directions the desk yeoman gave, she paced down corridors with her hooves making loud clops like high heels.

Someone leaned their head out a door and then called out from the room, "Okay, sir, she's here."

Teresa entered a room near a row of secured doors, which she took to be interrogation rooms. Inside, she saw several naval officers, but a black officer ushered the rest out, and closed the door behind them.

The navy officer then introduced himself, "I'm Commander Steven Grains, Criminal Investigation Services, U.S. Navy."

"Special Agent Teresa Sorenson, FBI," she said and accepted his handshake, before noticing the one monitor that showed an occupied room, "Who do we have here?"

"That's why we brought you in," Commander Grains said, "Domestic counter intelligence and counter terrorism is the Bureau's jurisdiction."

"So, do you think she's a spy or a terrorist?" Teresa asked.

"Don't know anything," Grains replied, "Other than what she told us. No passport, no nation of origin, though we're thinking Pakistan. She goes by Annie, she has a kid, and that she was picked up by the USS Gerald R. Ford and brought here along with the MSF physicians and their people."

"I see," Teresa noted.

"Do you see what else?" Grains asked, returning his attention to the monitor.

"Wings," Teresa observed, "And they're not illusory."

"Her kid's still human, so we weren't sure what to make of that," Grains explained.

"So far, no one has established a genetic component to all this," Teresa recalled aloud.

"Pentagon doesn't have any Fae on hand," Grains mentioned, "And we're barred from recruiting them, so we didn't have anyone who could see through that sort of horseshit."

"Except this is no horseshit," Teresa said, and turned to Grains. "What about her personal effects?"

"Got that right here," Grains said before bringing up a lock box off the floor and opening it with a key he immediately stuffed back in his pocket.

"Didn't think Muslims used Rosary Beads," Grains remarked.

The beads lay atop an ornate Qur'an, and each were bagged separately with felt tip marker writing for inventory. There also was a small flag, which Teresa recognized from her other case work. Other personal affects didn't strike Teresa as that big a deal.

"They're prayer beads" she pointed out, and then asked, "Have you dusted this for chemical weapons traces?" 

"Yeap," Grains answered, and eyed the belongings. "Also went through the book, page by page with a UV light to be sure there were no biological agents. It's clean. That is a Pakistani flag, right?"

"Just a little reminder of home," Teresa stated, "We can't hang onto these."

"Want me to have someone give them back to her?" Grains asked.

"I'll take care of it," Teresa replied putting the items in her briefcase, and then studied the monitor. "Well, we're not going to be able to verify age, if she tells us. Has anyone else questioned her?"

"Just a couple of my guys," Commander Grains said, "So far they don't see her as a threat, but-- well, you got the file we sent. We have to figure this one out before refuge status can be decided."

"I'll talk to her then," Teresa said.

"Right this way, Ma'am," Grains said and led the way out.

He waved over a couple Shore Patrolmen, "Jones, Lamont, you guys with us."

He unlocked the door to the room that Annie was kept in, and assigned the two SP's to the door while Teresa entered. The door closed and locked behind her.

Taking a seat, Teresa put the suitcase on the table opposite Annie, and then she opened it facing herself. "Annie, I'm Special Agent Teresa Sorenson of the Federal Bureau of Investigation."

"Hello," Annie replied, and shifted her wings a bit.

"The Navy CIS asked me to speak with you." Teresa decided to be upfront that far, for now. "Also, these are yours, so I'm returning them to you."

With that, Teresa handed over Annie's belongings including the beads and Qur'an, which Annie appeared to have longed for, taking up both to hold in her lap.

"Also, I want you to know that your child is doing well," Teresa managed to get out.

"Can I see him?" Annie asked desperately.

"Shortly, but first I need to know a few things," Teresa said, "For instance, you were found by the USS Ford's rescue ops in a camp alongside Doctors Without Borders. So by that, I can assume you're a medical doctor?"

"No," Annie replied, and seemed to embrace the Qur'an more tightly.

"RN?" Teresa inquired further, "Registered Nursed?"

"I know what is RN," Annie answered, "No."

"What is it you provided for Doctors Without Borders?" Teresa inwardly debated if she needed to apply the Bureau approved interrogation psychology techniques.

"I help with their work," Annie said plainly.

"From what information I have, the MSF staff said the same, but not would clarify what that meant," Teresa said.

"By your antlers I can assume you are supernatural, yes?" Annie asked, pointing at Teresa's forehead.

"Yes," Teresa admitted, "I'm considered an elder caste among the Fae. Were there no Fae in Syria?"

"Not many," Annie replied.

"What about Pakistan?" Teresa redirected her question.

Annie eyed the flag in the ziplock bag, before answering, "Not many anymore. Not since-."

Her words trailed off, whereon Teresa attempted to tease out with a sideways look, "Not since- since what?"

"Since your army left us to the mercy of the Taliban." Annie's tone had hardened a touch.

"The military had to leave Syria also," Teresa admitted, "Which I thought would've been a well-received decision."

"It was anarchy," Annie said, her gaze elsewhere not in the room, "Assad and his upper circle took to feeding off the people, and you left them at the mercy of those... those vampires."

"Our own national government fell," Teresa said, "We couldn't justify expending our efforts overseas."

"You seemed to be doing well now," Annie observed.

"It was touch-and-go for over a year," Teresa defended, and then decided it was time to shift her approach. "Though, if I recall, Doctors Without Borders had pulled out back a few years back. Why do you think they returned?"

"There was more we could do," Annie answered.

"Annie, I want to help you, here," Teresa offered the thread of hope. "So I need to be able to convince these guys you're not a security risk. According to my file, you were involved in a fire fight when the U.S. Navy arrived. What happened?"

"I don't shoot people," Annie stated as principle.

"What did you do?" Teresa asked, while gesturing her fingers under the table.

When next Annie spoke, Teresa got the swell of memories flooding in....

****

Mortar shells popped from tubes down the street and from behind buildings. The Ba'ath Army had lost its big artillery guns, and were reduced to pounding positions from closer ranges.

MSF physicians and staff ran back and forth between crises, while street fighting intensified. Al-Nusra rebels, deprived even of mortars, hurled grenades at Ba'ath army positions, losing two lives for every one explosive thrown.

Another rebel platoon fired on both the Ba'ath Army and Al-Nusra to defend the MSF camp. A cry caught Annie's attention, and she whirled around after sending Dastageer off with an MSF nurse toward a shelter.

"Whatever happens, do as this man says," Annie soothed Dastageer, "And know that mommy always loves you."

Dastageer led away by the hand, Annie returned her attention the source of the scream. One of the friendly rebel group fighters lay in the street with a shot to the abdomen. She got to the corner of a shattered building before looking around to see where shooting was coming from.

She raced out to the injured fighter. From the ruined hulk of a taller building, Annie heard someone shouting in Levantine Arabic, "God's servant below! We have to have her on our side!"

With the emergence of angels, the factions of Syria and other conflicts throughout the region took it as an ill omen to shoot them. It didn't stop some from inflicting harm, but always it was done in close quarters.

As such, Al-Nusra fighters, being closer to the camp than the Ba'ath Army, sent out their men to where she knelt over the injured man. Two were armed with improvised clubs, and one had a rope.

Annie placed salve on the rebel's wound, and concentrated hard for it to close. Intense light stimulated the compounds that, just a couple years ago, would've been useless for this purpose, and possibly added infection risks.

By then the rope was brought down around her arms and folded wings. Pressing outward with her wing's wrist joints, however, allowed Annie to force the man's arms to open. She was then able to take the rope off and stand.

Whirling around in a gust of wind, Annie swung a wing around so that the wrist cracked hard against the side of the Nusra fighter's head. He stumbled from the blow and collapsed in the middle of the debris and dust covered street.

By then, the rebel Annie healed was able to grab a hold of his Kalashnikov and stand. He leveled the rifle at the other two men. Annie noticed someone further back with a Ba'ath Army uniform also taking aim.

She jumped over to the healed rebel fighter to bring her wings up in front of him and herself. Just in time, it turned out, as the soldier fired and the shot struck the forearm part of her left wing. She felt the recoil, but her light-bending feathers deflected the round without suffering injury.

"Let's go!" the rebel yelled, and dragged Annie back to the camp.

By then the rotary blades of several helicopters sounded from above. The regime's air power couldn't be spared, so Annie wondered who flew over the shattered city. When the machines came into view she recognized the English letters and American flag. Two SH-60 Seahawk's an an ARH-70 Arapaho cruised into view.

The smaller Arapaho helicopter angled down and began firing on positions that, as Annie recalled, were Ba'ath Army positions. The two larger machines carefully landed in clear zones not far from the MSF camp, while their armed escort started firing on Al-Nusra fighters.

The navy sailors in the Seahawks made no bones about who they pulled onto their helicopters. Amid the roar of the engines, the crew chief called into his headset to the pilot who was in view. "We're at max capacity, Sir!"

Annie watched the smoking gray city recede, as the helicopter flew toward the sea.

****

With that, Annie finished her story, and Teresa's spell stopped providing memory. The arcane technique couldn't glean subconscious memories, nor push past when a subject mentally resisted, so Teresa had to have Annie speak as a distraction.

However, Teresa was able to make up her mind, and thanked Annie before rising to knock on the door. Outside, Commander Grains closed the door again, but without locking it.

"She's telling the truth," Teresa said to Grains.

"Did you get a real name out of her?" Grains asked with an expression Teresa guessed showed that he'd watched the interview on the monitor.

"Let her work that out with the State Department," Teresa answered, "You can release her and her child to State. Tell them I'll write up a report and recommend processing for refugee status.


End file.
